What big country has big plans for its big buildings? It's Russia! According to data from skyscraper-indexing site Emporis, Russia is home to seven of the 10 tallest buildings currently under construction in Europe. It's like a Space Race for office space.

Cities change: skyscrapers go up, row houses are torn down, neighborhoods gentrify, earthquakes destroy. Vintage photographs of cities can be fascinating in and of themselves, but the familiar unfamiliarity of these time-warped photographs are especially intriguing.

At St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport, a massive new terminal designed by London-based Grimshaw Architects is nearing completion after almost three years and a billion dollars' worth of work. The terminal's 54-foot spans are carefully tilted to keep deep snow from accumulating on the roof. [Architect's Journal]

When Tsar Peter the Great founded the former Russian capital city of Saint Petersburg more than 300 years ago, he intended it to provide a "window on the Baltic." Turns out, that window was more of a screen door. To protect itself, the city built a dam that took almost 300 years and $3.85 billion to complete.

You're driving south of St. Petersburg, listening to some John Lennon. The traffic is a little heavy. God, this song is so great—and now, let us pause for an enormous electrical explosion that dominates the entire horizon.